Monday, July 06, 2009

The DC Creep

Allen Kukovich, the executive director of the Regional Visioning Project, said the region has other needs.

“We can act in a cooperative effort and in a global economy,” he said. “Regional Visioning gives us not only the dialogue to create linkages, but allows us to ask questions to make our communities more livable for our children and our grandchildren. We need to start asking questions of ourselves: How do we want the communities to look 10, 15, 25 years from now?”

He is visiting newspapers in the area to publicize the Regional Visioning Project. It is currently a 30-county, four-state effort to encourage every resident to participate in creating a shared vision for the region’s future. He will recommend at the July 13 steering committee meeting that Allegany County, Md., and Blair County be added.

DC, by far, is Pittsburgh's most important global link. There is little gain in a westward orientation. Toronto would be a better bet than Chicago. The right ingredients are in place for an economic boom.

1 comment:

A friend of mine recently was looking at property near Deep Creek, MD. He decided against a buy because "all the DC people have driven prices through the roof," he said.

Garrett County is right next door to Allegany, and Cumberland's almost as close to Pgh as to DC. Might the economic advantages of moving closer to DC's economic orbit provide fresh impetus for the moribund Mon Valley Expressway?